John Kelly Confirms that he knew about Accusations facing Rob Porter

It’s been 30 days since Rob Porter departed as the staff secretary of the White House after he was accused of domestic abuse. Just yesterday, John Kelly who is the chief of staff of the Trump administration admitted that he might have mishandled the situation. Mr. Kelly had even sided with the outgoing staff secretary by issuing a statement that defended him. He retracted this defense yesterday by saying that the White House and its staff did not cover itself with glory by the way it handled the case. He was speaking to reporters in the White House, and he defended himself saying that Mr. Porter always portrayed himself as an ultimate gentleman to him and the entire White House. He further said that there is no given time that he ever saw the man mad or angry about anything. To him, being abusive was the last thing that Mr. Porter would be. Mr. Kelly would eventually accept a letter of resignation from Mr. Porter. Late on Friday, Mr. Kelly said that he was aware of the report as it had been presented to the White House one year earlier. By this, he confirmed the chronology that had been provided by the FBI director Christopher A. Wray.

In his own words, Mr. Kelly said that the account by Chris Wray was true. However, he also defended the White House senior counsel Donald F. McGahn by saying that he was not aware of an investigation that had been carried earlier concerning Mr. Porter. It was revealed that back in January 2017, Mr. Porter told the White House counsel that there was some damaging information about his past that was being held by his former wives. For instance, it was later confirmed that Colbie Holderness, who was his first wife had spoken with an FBI agent where she provided the agent with some pictures that depicted her with a black eye. She further told the agent that she had acquired the injury from Mr. Porter. This was later followed by more information to the FBI in March, July, and November. The New York Times later learned that there are some people in the White House that were briefed about the background investigation problems of Mr. Porter just some few days after his resignation. These people included Joe Hagin who was the deputy chief of staff, Mr. Kelly, and Mr. McGahn. However, Mr. Kelly denied that he knew about the personal issues facing Mr. Porter.